Dualism and Horror

Alex David Groce · 20 Oct 1998, 09:55 · from urth-v0020.mbox · original

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From: "Alex David Groce" <adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Re: Dualism and Horror
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 09:55:46
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Tony Ellis wrote:
> > Perhaps out of the simplistic version of it--I think there are some good
horror
> > writers who still make use of the concepts.  Even a supremely ambiguous
writer
> > like Robert Aickman (my favorite) often suggests, in his quiet way, that
> > something is evil--the dog in "The Same Dog," or Mr. Millar in "Meeting=
 Mr.
> > Millar" or Parliament in "My Poor Friend."=20
>=20
> Now that -is- interesting. I was actually thinking of Aickman when I
> wrote that! He's one of my favorites too. But for me he's very much a
> writer of supernatural horror, rather than evil. The dog in "The Same
> Dog" or the father in "The Stains" scare -me- because they seem
> representative of an alien, unknowable universe, rather than "evil". I
> don't know what Aickman's religious beliefs were, if any, but the
> impression I receive from his books is of a fundamentally pagan
> worldview, where "good" and "evil" are labels for things we don't
> understand rather then absolutes.

Ah.  I would tend to agree that they represent an unknowable universe; I've
always wondered what exactly Aickman's beliefs were as well (I've never man=
aged
to get ahold of a copy of his autobiography...) other than a passionate bel=
ief
in England's inland waterways (which is parodied in "My Poor Friend").
However, an unknowable can be implicitly evil or good, I think--I would say
there are moral judgments very quietly hiding in a lot of Aickman's
stories--it's because they are hiding that they are so convincing...  I thi=
nk
that the haunting statement in "Larger Than Oneself," (roughly--don't have =
the
book with me) "They got what they wanted; as in the end we all do," has mor=
al
overtones--David Hartwell seems to agree, and placed it in the section of T=
HE
DARK DESCENT that deals with stories about good & evil.  After all, Christi=
an
thinking suggests that in this state both good and evil are to some extent
unknowable--"now we see through a glass darkly."  And a story like "The Hou=
ses
of the Russians" strikes me very much a good/evil tale, in a Christian sens=
e.
While "The Real Road to the Church" would be touching on the Mystery in Goo=
d.
Not that I'm saying Aickman's a C. S. Lewis of the spooky or anything--I'm =
not
at all sure from his fiction what his beliefs were, but I'd say he makes us=
e of
good and evil and even very Christian ideas about them at times.
	Hmmm...  Probably boring the daylights out of the non-Aickman reading
public on the list.  Although if you like Wolfe, you should give him a try.

--=20
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)
Senior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)
'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President
608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce

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